Court approves CFTC’s settlement with FX fraudster Brett Hartshorn
Hartshorn agrees, among other things, to pay restitution of $890,000.
Judge Andrew L. Carter of the New York Southern District Court has signed an order for permanent injunction and other equitable relief against Brett G. Hartshorn in a lawsuit brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The Court thus approved the proposed consent order filed by the parties earlier in May.
The order, signed on May 22, 2020 and seen by FinanceFeeds, stipulates that the defendant must pay restitution of $890,000. Hartshorn is also permanently restrained, enjoined and prohibited from defrauding other persons. He is also prohibited from acting as an unregistered CTA, entering into transactions involving commodity interests, having any commodity interests traded on his behalf, applying for registration with the CFTC, as well as acting as an employee of an entity registered with the Commission.
Let’s recall that the CFTC has found that from at least June 18, 2008 to in or around 2014 Hartshorn fraudulently solicited at least 13 individuals, including members of his church and individuals he met in his local community, to invest in off-exchange foreign currency on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis and to give Hartshorn discretionary authority to trade forex on their behalf.
Hartshorn is accused of fraud in connection with retail Forex transactions, failure to register as a CTA and failure to comply with relevant CTA requirements.
He often resorted to emotional pleas with the Court, claiming that he “is lost” but that he can still “make a positive difference in this world”.
